I'm a cook not a baker

Hello I'm Gawker. 28 with a wife and daughter and a second kiddo due this summer. I'm a cook and have been for as long as I can remember. Growing up I did homework in front of the TV simultaneously taking notes from various cooking shows for things to try and I LIVED for learning about new things and trying new tastes and being able to say "Yeah I made this, no it didn't come in a box, and I'm sorry but there's no recipe...I just know in my head how things react and in the end we get dinner."

I HATE to bake. Everything has to be so exactly measured and recipes have to be followed so closely and carefully and everything's got to be just so or the whole thing ends up like the Hindenburg...my ego can't deal with that. I'm impatient and I like to throw a little of this and a little of that and make it up as I go. All of you amaze the crap out of me :D

That being said I've been DYING to learn about bread and having found this site I've been lurking without registering for right around 2 months now. I've baked exactly ZERO loaves of bread in that time because I was afraid but with the house to myself for the weekend I'm taking the plunge. In the kitchen about 15 yards from where I sit is a bowl containing what I hope will be Floyd's Daily Bread[1] and I wanted to go ahead and register and say hi so that WHEN I screw this up (and I have faith in my ability to do that) I can ask where I went wrong or how I could have fixed things.